Two Birthday Celebrations

This year's Birthday Ball was the best one I've ever been to. The ceremony was beautiful and the message from the Commandant, about the current generation of Marines learning from the legacy of valor left by their predecessors was that much more poignant because we were surrounded by veteran Marines. Paul did a great job presenting the awards his Marines have earned this year and we really enjoyed ourselves. At one point, Paul borrowed a hat from a very cool guest...the hat even had a feather, it was so awesome...and I didn't get a photo because Paul beckoned for me to come dance with him before I could get my camera to focus. The Marines loved that...so fun!

Oops! Didn't mean to upload this one...but here's the whole dress. I was ready before Paul if you can even believe it.

The girls didn't get much sleep...the babysitters called us about midnight to tell us that Bree was saying "daddy please" over and over and that was just too sad. Carly 'slept' with Paul and Bree flipped and flopped all over the bed where I was...Paul and I were joking about how we spent so much time last night thinking about how comfortable our beds were. =) Both chickies were up at the usual time (of course!) and we had some time to enjoy our fabulous view of the river.

This is pretty much what Bree looked like until we got on the highway to come home. Poor little baby got less than six hours of sleep and was really, really happy to see her bed tonight.

Carly and the city side of the view...I noticed something funny about that building with the stripes, though.

Those are DOORS that open to nothing...they go all the way up.

So after we got home and Bree slept for a little while, the girls and I drove down to this cool little animal rescue farm called Rosehill Habitat for a birthday party. It was the coolest place and SUCH an awesome party. The kids got to hold animals, feed fish and run around like crazy...so cool. We had a not so fun moment with THIS mean little chicken tried to peck Bree's hand...

"MOMMY!!!! I throwded it to the fish but the DUCKS ATE-ED all the food!!!! That is SO CRAZY!!!" This was about five minutes before Carly told one of the dad's to stay away from the bubbly juice because it has "high furcted syrup" in it. I almost died. That's my GIRL!

Oh how Carly loves "Jaskon" (Jackson). This is them having a long distance relationship - usually they stand nose to nose to talk to (shout at) one another. It's totally cute. I think they get along so well because they are relieved to just have someone who shares that VERY HIGH LEVEL OF EXCITEMENT ALL THE TIME AND IT'S SO GREAT. =)